Walkthrough 8.12: The Marvin Jones domino effect

Marvin Jones celebrates a touchdown last season against Indianapolis.(Photo: USA Today)

Avoiding the injury bug throughout the preseason would have been nearly impossible. That doesn't mean the Bengals shouldn't consider canceling the second Family Day practice inside Paul Brown Stadium in the future considering Andrew Hawkins endured a high ankle sprain during the event last year and Marvin Jones a fractured foot this year.

Obviously, just a coincidence, but I'll be keeping an eye on Mo Sanu next year.

More than likely with an injury like this you are looking at 4-8 weeks. That probably places him back around the bye week and back in action by Oct. 5 game at New England. Getting him back in football shape will be an even bigger aspect of this because Jones hasn't been taking part in full practices all camp, either. Remember, this was his first day back in 11-on-11 due to an ankle injury he suffered in July.

So, three games would be the current guesstimate prognosis. Probably at least a couple more until he's back with his legs fully under him in midseason form.

The Bengals have depth at the position, but this sets off a smallish domino effect.

We aren't talking Domino Rally here. Ever play Domino Rally as a kid? You spend seven hours setting up dominos carefully for two whole minutes of enjoyment. What a concept!

This is a mini-version of that, but definitely without the rocket launch (nobody ever got the rocket to launch, btw, complete false advertising, 1980s marketers).

Back to the Bengals, a few games without Marvin Jones directly affects Mohamed Sanu. We spent much of the first 10 days of camp raving about how well Sanu played. He appears re-energized and pushed by watching Jones hop him on the depth chart last year. Possibly the player everyone expected to see last year can come to fruition and fill the Jones void, particularly in the red zone.

The team was hoping Sanu could hone his role in the slot more this year, but this will move him back outside for a while. It's not his strongest suit, but he's equipped to handle it and has played there plenty the last two seasons.

That means the slot slips open and likely creates more opportunity for a fan favorite, Dane Sanzenbacher. When given opportunity Dane repeatedly has risen to the occasion. Only, opportunity hasn't come often for him. In the first quarter of the season it will now. The #Sanzensnaps just received a significant bump.

Beyond that, you could see emphasis on possibly keeping seven WRs for the first three games. The Bengals have kept seven in the recent past and this could increase that possibility. That likely means James Wright and Cobi Hamilton could actually both make the team -- for now. That's far from guaranteed, but would make more sense at this point.

The other options to fill his role would be Tyler Eifert and Jermaine Gresham to be split out more often. They already run unattached to the line quite a bit, but opening in a package with both on the line and motioning one out often creates a mismatch without needing to go to three wide receivers.

Also, the team planned to run Giovani Bernard more at the receiver position anyway, this just adds more chances for Hue Jackson to do that.

The bottom line is the offense isn't short on weapons and outside of A.J. Green going down there are creative ways to replace about any single injury among skill players.

ON TAP TODAY

The team practices back at the practice fields next to Paul Brown Stadium from 3-5. Get up there to see them while you can, the public practice portion of camp ends Thursday.

I delved into the time frame a bit above and while the team was vague with a timeframe on this, Marvin Lewis was helpful in informing he won't being the season on any lists. That means don't expect him to follow in Hawkins' footsteps as IR-designation to return (Week 9 at earliest). He also can't go on the PUP since he has already practiced.

For the fantasy players out there we introduce the new running podcast feature this year. Skinny and I draft Bengals players to go against each other all season. We'll outline this more specifically on a day when there isn't a major injury to discuss (let's hope tomorrow), but if you forward to the 45-minute mark it's great fantasy discussion as well as a chance to help us pick public humiliation bets to put on the line for our head-to-head battle.

I'd have a hard time picking between the piles of incredible, side-splitting movie and television appearances by Robin Williams. Here's a long list of them. But for me, his unique, uncontrolled comedic style always will rank among the funniest things I've ever witnessed. So sad he's gone, but moments like his appearance on the second-to-last episode of Johnny Carson, I will never forget watching as a kid. (He comes on at 6:30 mark).